360 Degree Assessment

360 Degree Assessment

by Julia Miller

Questionnaire and report examples

So what does a 360 degree feedback questionnaire look like? If you are rating your own or someone else’s behaviours you will be asked to complete a questionnaire (often online) and it may look something like one or other of the examples given below.

A sample leadership 360 instrument

Frequency scale

  1. Needs considerable development
  2. Needs development
  3. Competent
  4. Effective
  5. Very effective

N/A  Not observable or not applicable

Consider how effectively the participant carries out the activities listed below:
Frequency scale
1
2
3
4
5
N/A
Adapting to change: modifies plans and objectives readily according to changing circumstances and situations
O
O
O
O
O
O
Responding to feedback: takes feedback from others easily and uses the feedback to adjust own behaviour or performance
O
O
O
O
O
O
Responding to others’ needs: responds helpfully to others’ requests and takes the initiative to offer assistance and support. Is sensitive to what others need and want
O
O
O
O
O
O
© Consulting Tools Limited 2003

A sample 360 used to measure emotional intelligence:

Frequency scale

  1. To an extremely small extent
  2. To a very small extent
  3. To a small extent
  4. To a moderate extent
  5. To a large extent
  6. To a very large extent
  7. To an extremely large extent

N/A  Not observable or not applicable

Consider how effectively the participant carries out the activities listed below:
Frequency scale
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
N/A
Solicits and values the thoughts, opinions, feedback and ideas of others
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Maintains optimism and makes the most out of situations, whether good or bad
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
Effectively initiates and cultivates strategic internal alliances with key senior managers and others within the organisation
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
© Consulting Tools Limited 2003

Each behaviour you will have been asked to rate has been chosen as a critical behaviour factor for success in the job role under assessment. Often, these behaviours come straight from the competency statements which have been designed as part of the competency framework of your team, department or organisation and are therefore familiar to you. Some questionnaires also ask for open-ended comments.

What will a 360 degree report look like?

The report is usually presented as a bar chart, with the perception of the participant measured against those of the raters. Often the measurement of the person’s manager is separately identified, but others are usually only identified by their own rating group, such as direct reports, suppliers or customers.

Competency – Building strategic relationships

Av is the average score of those raters in that group for the questions that relate to that particular competency, in this case, Building strategic relationships.

N is the number of people in the group.

This rating scale is based on a scale of 7.

There will be as many bar charts as there are competencies measured. Reports often provide summaries for each competency as a whole and each specifically related question within that competency. This identifies how you compare in rating terms with your raters for each competency and for each question.

Reports may also identify your most frequent behaviours and which competencies these relate to – these most frequent behaviours will generally be regarded as strengths.

If the 360 includes open-ended comments, a summary of these will be provided within the report, the comments being identified by rater grouping.